A classic and nostalgic adventure, but fails to learn from the past's mistakes.

The End of Dyeus is a fantasy open world action adventure game reminiscent of classic titles from the NES and SNES era, but in a 3D environment. Players explore a world filled with a variety of enemies, treasures, and secrets in their quest to find the mysterious Dyeus.

The world design of Dyeus is quite strong. Immediately upon entering the game, the player has complete freedom to choose where they want to go, and there are plenty of incentives to stray from the main paths and explore. Almost no second of exploration is wasted as the world is jam-packed with various enemy camps or interesting geographical features that contain treasures or secret tidbits of lore. Many areas contain enemies that will be too difficult for the player to defeat at the start of the game, but as the player obtains better equipment, those areas become more manageable, offering a sense of progression in an otherwise completely open world.

Combat in Dyeus is extremely simple. In addition to basic movement, the player can attack or block... and that's it. There are a variety of weapons and accessories in the game that slightly change the player's approach to combat or give advantages against certain enemy types, but nothing that significantly shakes up the combat formula throughout the game. Even so, combat is fast and snappy enough to never feel too repetitive or tiresome, though it can make some enemies feel unfair due to fast attack patterns that are unblockable and don't have clear telegraphs.

Towards the last two-thirds of the game, Dyeus begins to suffer from two major flaws. The first is progression-related. Enemies start become so tough that only a specific shield can be used to block their attacks, and this shield is hidden in a red chest somewhere in the game world. Red chests contain powerful items in them, but require red keys to open them, which are also scattered around the world. It is entirely possible to open up the wrong red chests with the keys you find and be unable to progress in the game until you find another red key to open the specific red chest with the specific item you need inside. This system does not synergize with the openness of the world and leads to a frustrating feeling of being "stuck" in a game that otherwise gives the player a lot of freedom.

The second major flaw is that the last two bosses of the game are incredibly difficult and frustrating in ways that equipment upgrades don't really solve. One of these bosses is a flying enemy whose attack patterns become faster and leave the player less time to retaliate as its health decreases. Its AI also doesn't safeguard against starting these attacks in areas where the player has no time to dodge them, leading to frustrating experiences where the player is doomed to die no matter how well they've been fighting up to that point. There is a particular weapon that can be used to greatly help in this fight, but again, it is locked behind a red chest and very difficult to find, and it doesn't guarantee that the boss will play fair and not use its undodgeable attack patterns. The other boss has similarly frustrating attack patterns but is even faster, and the player's equipment selection is even more limited, requiring them to either abuse the world's geography in order to "cheese" the boss fight or simply get lucky that the boss doesn't use certain attacks.

A third, albeit more minor flaw, is that there are a lot of unexplained mechanics in The End of Dyeus. When acquiring a new piece of equipment, only an attack or defense value is shown to the player, but all of these pieces of equipment have hidden properties. A few of these properties are referenced by obscure hints in notes scattered around the world, but many of them are completely invisible. For example, there is a particular weapon that allows the player to damage the second boss through their thick armor, but this feature is unintuitive and not hinted at by any in-game means (that I could find, anyways).

The graphics and music are serviceable, and manage to create a variety of unique locations and moments. There is no dialogue, very little monologue, and no friendly NPCs (outside of silent shopkeepers), so narrative is extremely light, but this isn't particularly important for a game focused on exploration, which is what the game does best.

Although there's a lot to be enjoyed with The End of Dyeus, there are enough points of frustration that make it tough for me to recommend for most players. Still, old school gamers with a lot of resiliency for being lost (or who don't mind using walkthroughs to make sure they obtain the necessary progression items) will probably enjoy this game.

A classic and nostalgic adventure, but fails to learn from the past's mistakes. The End of Dyeus is a fantasy open world action adventure game reminiscent of classic titles from the NES and SNES era, but in a 3D environment. Players explore a world filled with a variety of enemies, treasures, and secrets in their quest to find the mysterious Dyeus. The world design of Dyeus is quite strong. Immediately upon entering the game, the player has complete freedom to choose where they want to go, and there are plenty of incentives to stray from the main paths and explore. Almost no second of exploration is wasted as the world is jam-packed with various enemy camps or interesting geographical features that contain treasures or secret tidbits of lore. Many areas contain enemies that will be too difficult for the player to defeat at the start of the game, but as the player obtains better equipment, those areas become more manageable, offering a sense of progression in an otherwise completely open world. Combat in Dyeus is extremely simple. In addition to basic movement, the player can attack or block... and that's it. There are a variety of weapons and accessories in the game that slightly change the player's approach to combat or give advantages against certain enemy types, but nothing that significantly shakes up the combat formula throughout the game. Even so, combat is fast and snappy enough to never feel too repetitive or tiresome, though it can make some enemies feel unfair due to fast attack patterns that are unblockable and don't have clear telegraphs. Towards the last two-thirds of the game, Dyeus begins to suffer from two major flaws. The first is progression-related. Enemies start become so tough that only a specific shield can be used to block their attacks, and this shield is hidden in a red chest somewhere in the game world. Red chests contain powerful items in them, but require red keys to open them, which are also scattered around the world. It is entirely possible to open up the wrong red chests with the keys you find and be unable to progress in the game until you find another red key to open the specific red chest with the specific item you need inside. This system does not synergize with the openness of the world and leads to a frustrating feeling of being "stuck" in a game that otherwise gives the player a lot of freedom. The second major flaw is that the last two bosses of the game are incredibly difficult and frustrating in ways that equipment upgrades don't really solve. One of these bosses is a flying enemy whose attack patterns become faster and leave the player less time to retaliate as its health decreases. Its AI also doesn't safeguard against starting these attacks in areas where the player has no time to dodge them, leading to frustrating experiences where the player is doomed to die no matter how well they've been fighting up to that point. There is a particular weapon that can be used to greatly help in this fight, but again, it is locked behind a red chest and very difficult to find, and it doesn't guarantee that the boss will play fair and not use its undodgeable attack patterns. The other boss has similarly frustrating attack patterns but is even faster, and the player's equipment selection is even more limited, requiring them to either abuse the world's geography in order to "cheese" the boss fight or simply get lucky that the boss doesn't use certain attacks. A third, albeit more minor flaw, is that there are a lot of unexplained mechanics in The End of Dyeus. When acquiring a new piece of equipment, only an attack or defense value is shown to the player, but all of these pieces of equipment have hidden properties. A few of these properties are referenced by obscure hints in notes scattered around the world, but many of them are completely invisible. For example, there is a particular weapon that allows the player to damage the second boss through their thick armor, but this feature is unintuitive and not hinted at by any in-game means (that I could find, anyways). The graphics and music are serviceable, and manage to create a variety of unique locations and moments. There is no dialogue, very little monologue, and no friendly NPCs (outside of silent shopkeepers), so narrative is extremely light, but this isn't particularly important for a game focused on exploration, which is what the game does best. Although there's a lot to be enjoyed with The End of Dyeus, there are enough points of frustration that make it tough for me to recommend for most players. Still, old school gamers with a lot of resiliency for being lost (or who don't mind using walkthroughs to make sure they obtain the necessary progression items) will probably enjoy this game.